Garage door project...

Geezer Garage

Senior Member
I mentioned these in another post, and said I would detail it here. When I started this endeavor I guessed it would take maybe two weeks to complete. Well that was a little optimistic. More like two months of steady work. I have a total of around $250 in materials in them, and at the rate I would charge anyone else, probably around $8000 in labor. Fortunately I give myself a heavy discount. The doors originally came from the re-store at the local landfill, where I picked them up for $100 for both of them. Prior to starting on the doors, I had to do all the Jambs and interior and exterior trim. Most of the material for this portion was from material that I had on hand, or picked up for free from different sources, like Craigs list, of FBMP. Free has always been my favorite price point, and I truly enjoy taking things that someone else would throw in the trash, and making it useful again. In order to keep this from getting painfully long and boring I will just list the steps involved in transforming the doors from roll up overhead doors to sliding barn style, mostly to justify to myself how much time I spent on this, but also to give some idea of what's involved in something like this.

Remove all of the overhead door hardware.
Pressure wash the 10 door panels.
Remove the remainder of the vanish used on the cedar with a wire cup wheel on a 4" grinder.
Get all of the areas not accessible with the wire wheel by hand.
Remove all of the glass and fix the one broken section, and replace some of the trim that was poorly fitted.
Re-cut several of the panels to get them to fit correctly.
Apply satin finish polyurethane to all the wood surfaces.
Repair dents and dings on the metal backs of doors, and apply three coats of white paint.
Remove rust and mill scale from 160' of three different types of steel used.
Drill 100 3/8" holes in the 4 each, 3"x1/8x7' strap steel which is used to hold the five sections of each door together.
Drill, and counter sink another 60 holes in same metal pieces above.
Plug weld the 100, 3/8 holes to the metal end caps of the door sections, and install the 60 screws in the countersunk holes into the cedar fascia.
Cut, fit, and weld the triangulated top corner sections of the doors without burning up the wood underneath.
Cut and weld on the four wheel support stanchions.
Machine, and modify the four trolley wheels, and axles, and weld to the support stanchions. The wheels are pulleys from my 1962 Case combine.
Drill mounting holes in 30' of 2" angle iron for the trolley track, and weld 30' of 1" angle iron to the length of the 2" angle to create the wheel guide, paint track.
Treat all of the steel I attached to the doors with a gun bluing solution, neutralize solution, and seal with satin urethane.
Mount track assembly, and doors , and adjust.

Would I do it again? Probably. I've never claimed to be very bright.

 

The end products are beautiful and one-of-a-kind. People like you have the ability to see something in bits and pieces that people like me cannot. And you have the talent and tools to bring your concept to reality. Again, things that I lack.

Are these doors entrances to your garage or part of your house?
 

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